Arts Commission: Coit Tower ballot measure is ‘overly restrictive’

A ballot measure to preserve Coit Tower is heading voters’ way in June. Turns out the Arts Commission and the Recreation and Park Department, which oversee the tower, are not fans.

To recap, the ballot measure is a non-binding declaration of policy that calls for “strictly limiting commercial activities and private events at Coit Tower.” It also calls for the city, which receives rent from the concession operating inside the landmark, to “prioritize” that money for maintaining the building and beautifying Pioneer Park.

At issue are the landmark and the Great Depression-era murals that line its interior, which are peeling and otherwise damaged in some places. The ballot measure is organized by the Protect Coit Tower Committee, a small group led by Jon Golinger, president of the Telegraph Hill Dwellers.

The Arts Commission, which oversees those murals and the rest of the city’s public art collection, is not too pleased with the proposal, as Tom DeCaigny, the commission’s new director of cultural affairs, wrote in a letter submitted to the city’s Ballot Simplification Committee Monday.

“Our office believes that the proposed measure, as written and if adopted, would be overly restrictive of the commercial activities and private events at Coit Tower, which provide critical revenue streams for the Recreation and Parks Department and the civic art collection of which the Coit Tower murals are a part,” DeCaigny wrote in the ballot measure analysis, which the Department of Elections requested.

The Arts Commission does not receive enough money to preserve the city’s whole public art collection, nor does it have the staff to do the necessary fundraising, he wrote. In fiscal year 2010, the city gave the commission $75,000 to maintain all pieces of public art — not nearly enough, he wrote, to repair Coit Tower’s murals.

The Recreation and Park Department, which oversees operations at the tower, has pledged $250,000 toward the restoration of the murals and will put 1 percent of the annual rent it receives from the tower’s incoming vendor toward mural maintenance. It’s also required the vendor to avoid harming the art. That would bring in about $6,000 annually, DeCaigny said.

“It is astounding that the position of ensuring maximum profitability is seen as the top priority of the director of the Arts Commission at Coit Tower, rather than celebrating, safeguarding and stopping the damage being done to the murals there every day,” Golinger said in response. “That seems completely backwards.”

UPDATED (5:15 p.m.): The Recreation and Park Department also wrote a letter with concerns about the ballot measure: “A strict reading and implementation of the policy statement could restrict the Department from engaging a commercial operator to allow visitors to access the observation deck or enjoy any amenities on site. Given current budgetary constraints, such a policy decision could likely result in the severe restriction of public access to Coit Tower and would hamper the Department’s ability to maintain the facility in a safe and welcoming manner. The measure could severely reduce the department resources used to maintain nearby parks and playgrounds in lower income and underserved neighborhoods.”

a strict reading and implementation of the policy statement could restrict the
Department from engaging a commercial operator to allow visitors to access the observation
deck or enjoy any amenities on site. Given current budgetary constraints, such a policy decision
could likely result in the severe restriction of public access to Coit Tower and would hamper the
Department’s ability to maintain the facility in a safe and welcoming manner. The measure
could severely reduce the department resources used to maintain nearby parks and playgrounds
in lower income and underserved neighborhoods.